I should know better

Usually I am reporting at this time on how excellently I have enjoyed the festive season with my relatives, who have fed me to bursting point.

This year is a little different.

The relatives I usually impose on at Christmas have had no water since well before that. The main has frozen. They are reduced to using buckets of river water to flush the loo, and there is no sign of the water returning.

The ones I visit on Boxing Day for the sumptuous seven course dinner had no cooker.

I had a very quiet time, during which I opened quite a few tins, and was profoundly grateful that I had water, and facilities to cook the contents of those tins.

Meanwhile, we have a thaw, enough that I was able to retrieve Allegra from her romantic interlude down south. She has been greatly missed. It is now a case of wait and see, but she is looking very smug.....

One (the only) advantage of the deep snow was that I didn`t have to clean underneath my grubby bunch when they came in. The snow obliged. What the males thought about that sensation is not recorded. Now my lot have reverted to dirt with a vengeance.

However, I am no longer snowed in, and feeling a bit more optimistic about the coming year....

Which I hope will be very prosperous for all of you.